


blood and sweat [i cry before dawn]

by beachbummer



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Origin Story, Alternate Universe, Backstory, Gen, Latino Character, i will rub my own personal experiences all over my emotional support character sorry yall, latino dick grayson can i get a helll yeahhh babeyyy!!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-07-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:00:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25048801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beachbummer/pseuds/beachbummer
Summary: Robin would have existed with or without Batman[Because Dick was never one to be on the sidelines, he was born and bred to shine in the spotlight. He was never anyones push over, never anyones sidekick. He’d been told, been raised by his parents to always ensure that he is known as an equal to others, a partner, a leader. He would not be sidelined.]Or: a different origin story to Robin.
Relationships: Dick Grayson & John Grayson, Dick Grayson & Mary Grayson
Comments: 10
Kudos: 13





	blood and sweat [i cry before dawn]

week one day 2.

The rancid smell of mold pervades his nose, unapologetic just like the rest of the sensations in the room [cell].

He shivers, and mourns once more for the scratchy blankets in his home, the ones his mama would make with little violets around the edges, mourns for the mismatched pillows with stars and moons and polka dots on them that his papa got for half off. He mourns for so much more, he thinks he might just fall apart from it all. 

He doesn’t want to think about them because if he does he’ll cry but all he really wants is to think about them, to never forget her short black hair with her glossy sharp smile and his curled brown hair with those soft eyes.

[call him a fool, a clown like the ones who babysat him, because he knows he’ll never stop thinking about them, at least not now. never stop thinking about his papa’s mustache that would twitch when he held in his laugh and his mama’s bird nose with the little silver stud on the side. how they laughed together, how they yelled at each other in the dead of night but fell asleep in each others arms, how they loved and lived.

how they fell.]

He tries not to, the kid in the bunk above him told him not too, but he can’t help the small whimper, biting his lip to stop from crying because he can’t forget about them, can’t even bring himself to pretend to want to. He cries. He mourns.

——

week 2.

His papa once told him, about an experiment they did in America. His mama warned his papa to not scare him but didn’t try too hard to stop him. She knew there was still a lesson to be learned from the experiment, even for a young boy. Especially for a young boy.

“Escucha bien, chico, this isn’t a fairy tale. I want you to understand the injustices and I know you’re young but you must understand. Years back, in America, they held an experiment were they took men, all shapes and sizes, gave half of them a badge and the other half a number to go by instead of a name. There was no indicator for who got what, completely random. The experiment was meant to last longer but it only lasted a few days. You want to know why?”

He did. He wished he didn’t.

“You give a man power and they will want to test the limits. You give a man power, and they’ll abuse it. The men with badges hurt the prisoners, thought they were better than them, and why? Because they had a badge and a voice over the speakers telling them it was okay.“

“Why didn’t any man stand up to them?”

“They did. They boycotted and they did what they could to stand up but you know what the men with the badges did? They hurt them even more. To them it just proved what they thought, that men with numbers are just violent and deserve it. But that’s not true, a man with a badge and a man with a number, at the end of the day are just men. Power is given and they lose their sense of humanity. And I want you to know, chico, that if a man with a badge tells you that you are less deserving of basic rights, of happiness, of life, you have my blessing to spit on them and their power. 

Mijo, you deserve all that and more, and so does every single human, every animal and creature. You stand up even if they hurt you because you know that power means nothing, that they hide behind nothing. People will stand with you, and you must stand with them.”

He thought his papa was being pessimistic.

He knows now, when men with shiny badges pinned to their front ignore his cries for help, that his papa was right. They gain power and suddenly they’re no longer human. He wants to stand up, wants to do what his papa told him, but he’s scared and while his papa was right about the men with badges he’s not so sure the boys in the center will stand with him. 

They gained power too, because he was smaller and spoke a different language and cried easily. They gained power and forgot that they wore the same uniform. 

He wishes he could stand up but right now he can barely even open his eyes to face the day. He is powerless in the experiment.

——

week 2 day 5.

A boy in the center asked to trade his cherry jello cup with his lime jello cup. 

The boy has a scar on his hand, darker skin than his own, and he doesn’t smile with his teeth but that’s okay because he never smiles at all anymore. 

He trades the jello with him. They are not friends but they trade and he thinks maybe he can stand up now. Or at least open his eyes. 

——

week 3 

The boy who traded with him is named Lucas. Lucas Angelo. He has a hard time saying his first name but his surname rolls off his tongue. They are not friends, they are allies. 

Lucas doesn’t make fun of his name, tells him that his great uncle goes by that too. They are allies and maybe soon friends. 

They want to stand up but no one else stands with them, they receive taunts and experience pain. They can’t stand up but they will not take it laying down either. 

They plan, they execute. Lucas is good at lock picking and he can climb. They’re a good team. 

It goes like this:

They decide to take the bait of one of their daily taunts, and it causes a commotion. The men with shiny badges barge in, only escalating the scene. But they’re quick to leave in the distraction of the yells. They both know how to pick pockets, Lucas learned on his own and he picked it up from the scammer who passed out fliers for the circus. They steal the keys.

They run like hell. 

They’ve managed to learn where all the cameras are and they know which ones are conveniently turned off, in case a man with a shiny badge decides to get bored and make some noise. They go that same route, smiling with no teeth because the men with badges’ abuse of power was their own downfall. 

They open the office off to the side with the keys they took, they pick up pepper spray in one of the drawers just in case. They leave through the window in the office because they know they wouldn’t make it to the front entrance. The office window leads to a side alley, and they climb out.

Dick drops to the ground and stands up on shaky legs.

Lucas holds him upright.

They run once more.

——

Dick remembers a man, named Bruce Wayne from that dreaded night. Remembers the heavy pat on his shoulder, steering him clear away from the scene. He didn’t trust that man, didn’t feel comfort, but it helped a bit. Made the night seem a bit less dreadful, a bit more star studded. 

The funny thing about stars, his mama told him, is that they are already likely dead by the time you really look at them.

His parents were stars of the show shining, glimmering, falling. 

He thinks Bruce Wayne must be a star in his own right, because he never hears from him again after that night despite meaningful looks and jumbled promises. He’s still not sure what it is he exactly said, his understanding of english still not the best and Bruce Wayne spoke in an accent his parents tended to avoid, that crystal clear posh sound and soulless pronunciation, like he’s reading the pronunciations from a dictionary and not learning how to speak from the people around him. 

[he remembers how his parents spoke, his mama spoke quickly, efficiently. swear words slipped out of her mouth like water from a stream, he remembers how she reveled in being able to say them when in her childhood she was exempt from doing so, before she ran away with his papa. how his papa’s voice was firm but never too serious, words that would tumble from his mouth with purpose. how he spoke with children like he spoke to adults because he wasn’t much older than the children himself, or at least that’s what his mama said. both of them would speak with cracks in their pronunciations, picked up habits from the circus, from the people, to Dick it showed that they not only lived, but they loved with others.]

He doesn’t go looking for Bruce Wayne that night. He wonders if he should go looking for Batman instead. 

Lucas tells him about Batman, tells him he’s good, does what the police should already be doing, helps those that need it. Dick wonders if he really is that good, or if the bar is just too low. He wonders why his parents died, when Batman was out in the night. He doesn’t think Batman is all that great, the more he thinks about it. But he can’t articulate this well enough, he’s been communicating with Lucas through broken words and heavy accents and hand gestures before Lucas taught him new words, new meanings, what to say and what not to say. Even with the lessons, he struggles with his thoughts and how to voice them.

Though it seems like Lucas knows what he’s thinking, knows that Batman can’t be a hero if at most he is only doing what should’ve already been done before, but here is where Dick learns a new word and the strange hold it has on people. Hope. 

——

They camp out at night in an alley, huddle under newspapers, under the dimming lights from windows up above, but it’s the happiest they’ve felt in what seems like ages. 

In the morning, Lucas goes to call someone from the pay phone with money he doesn’t bother to ask where it came from. His cousin from a city over, who lives alone now at the age of twenty three, answers. Lucas tells him he can come with him, tells Dick that he’s always welcome but Dick knows that isn’t true, he knows a twenty three year old could barely take care of themselves much less two kids freshly broken out of juvie.

[he knows this because his parents were twenty one and twenty two when they had him, thirty and thirty one when they fell. and even then they fought in the night about expenses, about the lack of money despite being the stars of the show. he knows that making ends meet is hard, knows it’s even harder with little boys running around with too much wit for their own good.]

Dick says thank you either way, asks for the number just in case he ever needs it, but says he’s got other plans. 

They realize that maybe they aren’t just allies, maybe breaking out of juvie together makes them just a bit closer than that. They don’t say anything else while they hug, and Lucas turns on his heels in search of a bus stop. Dick smiles with tears in his eyes, and wishes he could hug his mama and papa like that, just one more time. 

[In the future, Dick will call from time to time, because he can’t ever forget his first supporter in his plans, even if Lucas was unaware of said plans. He calls, he avoids any questions asking him where he is, says vaguely in an accent that he slips into naturally when talking to Lucas, that he’s staying here and there, around town. Lucas does the same. They both know that it’s best to not ask.]

——

Dick’s plan isn’t really much of a plan, and more like an inkling of an idea, a line of print in the big picture, but it’s a start and it’s something. He’s never had much so he knows how to work with what he does have. 

[his parents taught him many things ranging basic conversation in different languages to advanced mathematics to how to properly throw a punch to how to knit a blanket. one of the most important things he’s learned from them, though, is when you get an idea, no matter how absurd, if it brings a sense of contentment in your heart, run with it. if that means running away with a boy to the circus, or having a baby before you’re married, or even just having pan dulce for dinner instead of saving it for breakfast, then so be it. they taught him to value happiness and to value your instincts, run with the ideas in your head until they are true.]

Dick Grayson has a wildly absurd idea that he knows will fill a void in his chest and so he chases it. 

——

The chase leads him to an abandoned warehouse, one with leaking pipes and a scent reminiscent of the room back in juvie. He starts to think that Gotham just smells like that. 

He hears voices, though, and he wonders what they say. He’s come prepared, he’s not dumb. He’s been sleeping in dumpsters and sneaking into gym showers to clean up, he knows how to hide his tracks and knows how to pick up a few things along the way with a quick five finger discount. He’s not happy with what he has to do but he’s not dumb, knows he won’t survive in a city like this without a bit of scrappiness [which is what he’s choosing to call it because is it really a crime to snatch some water from a chain grocery store? is it really? it should be free, it comes from the sky, are you kidding?!]

He’s come prepared with a thrown away recorder that he fixed up with a bit of electric tape and new batteries. He records, and rewinds what the men said, with an english to spanish dictionary in the local library he frequents on weekdays to pass time and avoid suspicion. 

This is what he gathers:

“The Bat’s still running around town, giving every criminal a run for their money, how much longer you think he’ll last before he collapses under Gotham’s corruption?” 

“I think it could go two ways, he goes off the end a bit in, say, a few years. If we assume he keeps workin’ alone to clean the streets, its bound to happen. Now, this is where I say is anybody’s call, because he can either get absolutely power hungry and instead of just taking in the criminals, he plays judge, jury, and executioner, you get the gist? Yeah? Or he just absolutely gets drained, no more motivation, criminals run rampant especially because the law was so reliant on him to do most of the work for them that now they’re left fumbling, either way, it gets ugly.”

“So you think he should get a partner? A team? He don’t look the type to work well with others, I doubt he’d ever”

“I mean, yeah, he should definitely get a team or someone to help, but like you said, works alone apparently. Unless his partner is exactly the same as him I doubt he’d ever agree to one” 

“But, lets say his partner was like him, wouldn’t that just be worse? It’s like, okay, hear me out, I think they’d work side by side but not together, does that make sense? Like, let’s say first year of working together they realize they work the same way, they don’t communicate as much with each other because they think they don’t need to, then eventually they’ll disagree on something, realize they aren’t carbon copies of each other, big fight, they go separate ways, and now we have two Batmans that likely don’t like each other anymore, so they’re gonna have their own fights while also fighting villains.” 

“Maybe someone so ‘dark’ should get a contrast, it’ll keep him on his toes, that kind of yin and yang relationship goin’ on. I think it’d help with victims too cause I doubt Batman looks real inviting to them, maybe his partner could be and his partner helps with that?”

“Man, that’d probably be the best way to keep a solid career of vigilantism going, a partner that’s in direct contrast but still, you know, your partner. I just don’t see it happening, though, if that person wasn’t there from the start I don’t think Batman would look into it now a year into this gig.” 

“Can you two can it? Boss ain’t gonna be happy if we get busted because his guards decided to have a gossip session, now shut your mouth and do your damn job.”

“Yessir”

Dick’s idea starts to take form, he is no longer chasing it, he’s caught it. 

——

Dick doesn’t know much about his family, but what he does know, he keeps close to his heart, next to the ideas. He knows his papa was born somewhere in Mexico, born into the circus with his own mother being a curandera and father being a knife thrower. Both were killed when a man thought his mother was committing witchcraft, which led him to flee that particular circus. Along the way he met Dick’s mama, who was born in Morelos, Mexico, known for the eternal spring. He treasures the nights when his parents would tell the story of two children fleeing from grief and unjust pressures from family, chasing ideas and dreams. 

[he hopes his idea won’t land him in the same place it landed his parents in.

but he thinks about it and wonders if it’d be so bad to end up with them, no matter where they are. 

and he knows his idea will eventually lead him there and he doesn’t think he minds as long as good is done along the way]

Dick Grayson was born Ricardo Julio Grayson, his parents were named Marisol Linda Grayson and Julio Grayson. But what the fliers from the circus won’t tell you, is that their original name is Guzman. They westernized their name, called themselves The Flying Graysons to blend in. They called him Dick instead of Ricky because they thought it would help him blend in the western world, especially since they seemed to be doing more and more shows there. [they didn’t count for the double entendres the name had since english was not their first nor second nor third language] 

His mama used to call him colibri, hummingbird in spanish. His papa would tell him the story about Huitzilopochtli, about birds and the south. Dick thinks colibri is a bit too special to him, as he skims through a book about birds in the library once more. He knows a few, knows about blue jays and those small little brown ones, but his eyes catch on a specific one. A spring bird. Robin.

Huh.

[and something clicks into place]

He thinks about calling up Lucas, decided its too soon since their last call and begins to plan. He is already far past an idea and straight into destiny. 

—— 

[he will not look for Batman. 

but Batman looks for him, Bruce Wayne looks for him after rumors spread of a kid in bright colors fighting crime, but he can never find his home base. he does not have one. instead he flies and makes allies like Lucas with kids in the alleyways, who keep him in for a night in trade of Robin taking down an abusive father or a pestering bully. Batman continues to look for him but as he later grows to chase aliens instead of regular criminals, Robin stays in place amassing a substantial support system in the cracks of the side walk, in the mold of warehouses, in the middle of Gotham, and later to surrounding cities. Batman is to the city as Robin is to the children. he wishes to spread the hope that Lucas first taught him. 

Batman never finds him, they don’t ever cross paths, even when Robin makes friends with other vigilantes, other children of heroes. Robin is not sure what he’d do if their paths ever do cross, but he’s glad they didn’t. he doesn’t think he’d be able to take the broken promises shoved in his face again, platitudes that he later learned came from Batman himself. he doesn’t know if he’d be able to take the many things that meeting Batman, or Bruce Wayne, would offer.

But he knows one thing,

Robin exists for good, no matter the help of Batman.]

**Author's Note:**

> please spare some validation.... spare some validation please...
> 
> hope u enjoy this i tried rlly hard especially w the grayson’s backstory, i hope its not convoluted or anything bc i think i rlly like the latine headcanon of them i made [i know theyre romani in some runs but that was not handled well at all, but if this does rub anyone the wrong way please let me know!!! im latina btw, so a lot of this is just me projecting, if that helps] anyways thank u for reading !!!


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